Bob Smallwood Part 9

Bob Smallwood Today on John Dash and Friends John sits down with one of his closest friends Bob Smallwood. A man whose music has touched lives across the mountains healing broken hearts and bringing hope to those who need it most. Together, they share a passion for reaching the lost and shining light in dark places. This is more than a conversation it’s a moment you won’t forget. We hope you enjoy this episode of *John Dash and Friends*. #JohnDashAndFriends #BobSmallwood #DashTv #DashTvNet #TalkShow #PodcastLife #InterviewSeries

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Years ago. Yeah. You know, you think about the stuff, the history and the things that they remembered. I got to do one with my uh I done wanna h here with my Uncle Kenny and my Aunt Jeanette. And my Aunt Jeanette's with the Lord now, but I got to interview them one time, sit down with them and just talk to 'em about growing up and talk about their life. But you didn't know it was history when you were doing it. No. You thought it was just another day. Just another day. You think, well, this is just another day.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

What a great thing.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

You know, and uh I don't know, Bob. I I enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

I think that's uh I made up my mind.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

I'm going to enjoy people. I'm move along with people do that just like I want to, and I'm gonna have fun with people, enjoy them, talk to them when I want to talk to them, go on about my business.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Well, you've sure been good to me. You know, John, I've known you for a while, but since the time I met you and your daddy and the family, and uh, of course, at horse shows and different things. But uh you've always helped me. Now uh, even though I made a lot of money in my life, I ended up broke. It happens. God knows it happens, and and the reason I l when I left Detroit, I I had I was a millionaire over. And at that time, interest was about 18%. Right. So I was doing pretty good, and I wasn't worried about nothing. And I told uh uh I felt like God spoke to me. I went to sing at Little Abner's Nightclub at night in Detroit, and they had the Harden Trio up on the stage, and and they uh they paid me $100 just to be a guest, and I'd go sing three or three songs. Because I'd be on the radio early in the morning. And when I walked in the door, the uh that uh Harden boy said, ladies and gentlemen, Bob Smallwood just came in, and there'd be a big hand, this drunk came over and lays his hand on my shoulder and said, We'd rather see you than we would Jesus. I said, Uh-oh. Uh-oh. I ain't even supposed to be here. You know, I got saved so many years, and here I'm telling myself, I'm making a living.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

I'd like to try to explain that. I mean, I wouldn't like to. I mean, I'd hate to have to explain that to Jesus one day. Yeah. I was making a living. Sure, I made a lot of money, but but anyway, I went and told my wife, my ex-wife, she she became a federal judge. And uh but anyway, she was smarter than me for sure. But I uh I went and told her, I said, I believe the Lord wants me to go back home to McDowell County. I love McDowell County, I always have. Right. It was a wonderful you know, it came to war to me from Bradshaw, it was a big city. Yeah. It it went on and it went on and on, all the way up to Big Creek High School. I mean, and and I just loved it. Uh it was so wonderful, just the people on a Saturday. You couldn't get down the sidewalk for people. Then, of course, you had that wonderful in your family, the hole in a wall.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

And I I just love war and and and all the the great places. But I had to come back. I said, I'm gonna go back. I don't care about what I do. I got money, I'll never spend it all, and I put it up and well, never thought about my wife taking all the money and leaving. But she she called me one day from Tasville, the lawyer's office, and said, Well, I'm divorcing you and I got uh and I got a court order. You can't come around the house or nothing. Well, I didn't I was shocked, so I didn't do nothing. Right. And a few days later I thought, you know, I I'm gonna go down and get me out about $50,000. I'm gonna pay off, make sure I don't owe nobody. I owe Noah Horn well drilling down there. Right. Uh he drilled me a well, a big well, and I hadn't paid him yet. And I said, I'm gonna pay him and anybody I can think of. And uh and uh Grandinister Bank says, my wife took everything. Oh Lord. I had them CDs gone. So I was broke. Yeah. Now and that wasn't bothered me as bad as the divorce did, you know, but God knows what he's doing. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And it wasn't no time at all until, you know, my grace is sufficient. Oh, Paul said, God told him, and God told me many times, my grace is sufficient. Even in those times.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

I said, well, here I'm broke, but heck, I'm a young man. I can go over again. So let her have it. I didn't get a lawyer to try to sue her. I didn't even get a lawyer, I got the divorce and went on. And then I uh they needed a manager down in Kentucky for a station down there, WPRT, I believe it was.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Where at in Kentucky? Prestonsburg. Prestonsburg.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

I had the AM and FM. Well, they they I managed them, and after a few months, they said, Mr. Smutt, they called me in, it was in bankruptcy, and the judge and uh um whoever the people were there, they said, we'd like to sell you this station. I said, I don't have no money. They said, You don't need no money. You done showed us you can run it. You're making money right now. Our creditors just want their money.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

You can have the whole place for $200,000, the buildings, the AM, the FM. I gotta tell you about that AM. It was a a bridge, about 200 feet of swinging bridge straight up with wood missing in it. The only way to get to my tower where the transmitter was was cross that bridge. But anyway, I I I bought that thing. I had a friend of mine, Jerry Davis from Ohio, he was real smart. Uh but to keep me from having to do that every morning, I didn't have the way to do it. They didn't have all the equipment. He he put an alarm clock on it. And every morning that alarm clock turned it on, had a turn it off at the evening. He had two uh he he was he was like you. He knew what he's doing. You couldn't stop him. I didn't want to cross that thing. I had crossed it, but I didn't want to. But but anyway, I bought them. Yeah. And I thought, well, God, you've given me two stations here, and we're making money already. And then this guy came in that owned a car dealer there. And uh I thought he wanted to buy an ad. He'd come into my office, sit down, and I said, What can I do for you? He said, I want to buy these two stations. I said, Well, now I owe about $200,000 on them. And uh I've only had them about three months or four months, something like that. He said, I know all about it. He said, uh, I'm gonna write you a check for $350,000. I said, You are? He said, Yep. I said, let me go ask my wife. I done got married again to Ruby Ann, she died of cancer later. But anyway, I I didn't know uh that I didn't even know this man. And I said, he said, call Bank Josephine if you want to know if my check's good. I did. They said, if he writes you a check for me and you take it, it'll be good. So I said, okay. I said, when do you want me out of here? He said, today. I said, well, you got a lawyer to fix all that up, because you know how licenses are. They're a public trust. But they fixed it up for me. And I got out of there and uh and uh the man that bought it, he said, would you mind stopping by my car dealer in the morning at 8 o'clock? I said, Okay. He said, I'm gonna pay you a check for this. He gave me $150,000, but he paid off and he said, uh, I'm gonna give you some money, cash, for doing this for me and moving out of here. He gave me $10, but my wife told me, so why are we sitting down this card? He ain't gonna show up. She said it'd be there at nine. He didn't get there about nine thirty. When he came in, he threw the paper bag to me there, poke, we used to call him.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

And there was all kinds of hundred dollar bills as far as you could see. And I got that too. And then I said, I just remembered in my checking account, there's probably thirty, forty thousand dollars in that, and you bought everything. He bought everything. Right. Locked stock and borough. He said, That's yours. You close that checking account out before you leave here. I did, I went by that that time you were open on Saturday, I went by and closed my checking account out. Took that was another $35,000, $40,000.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Right.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

And went right down to Whitfell and God blessed me to pay $50,000 down on those two stations. And before I was through, you know, I owned 10 acres on the interstate. And and show you how people like me and you are, I bought everything too. The corporation's what I bought. And uh about oh few years later, Ernest Wilson was his name that I bought it from, and he said, Mr. Smallwood, I've got a problem, but I'm willing to pay for it. He said, I told you that corporation, all everything it owned. I forgot that it owned about 2,000 acres next to Whitfell over there where they're trying to bring in one of those Disney Worlds or something. And I couldn't find a deed for it, all of a sudden I remembered that's yours. How much will you charge me? I said, Well, Ernest, I ain't gonna charge nothing because I I didn't even know it was in part of ours. And I signed a deed and the lawyer signed. But God remembers that. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. When Ruby Anna was dying of cancer, I I had uh down in uh in in Charlottesville, she was there month after month. But I was at uh at that time I owned four stations and regulations.